British Columbia’s Three Pass Cultural Corridor

From the instant my eyes rested on the broad shining surface
of its buffer beam and cowcatcher, over which a bright little flag
waved from a glossy brass pole, I decided to travel there and
nowhere else for the remaining six hundred miles of my journey!

So wrote Lady Agnes MacDonald in her diary of her experience
riding a cowcatcher at the front of a Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR) locomotive from Lake Louise all the way to
Vancouver. Lady Agnes, wife of Sir John A. MacDonald,
was travelling on a special train crossing Canada in July 1886 to
celebrate the completion of the transcontinental railway.
Lady Agnes was enthralled by the mountain scenery she encountered
from Kicking Horse Pass to Rogers Pass through to Eagle Pass,
convinced even her husband, the Prime Minister, to join her on the
cowcatcher to travel for about 45 kilometres along this route, and
described the journey later in her book "By Car and by
Cowcatcher".

In late 1885, the last spike of the transcontinental railway was
driven down at Craigellachie, finally connecting British Columbia
with the rest of the Dominion. The first train - the Pacific
Express - to cross Canada didn't leave Montreal until June 28,
1886, a Red Letter Day according to the
CPR. The inaugural train passed through the rugged
mountains of the Rockies,
Selkirks, and Monashees on Canada Day, arriving in Port Moody, B.C.
on July 4, 1886. Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald was not
available to ride this first train, but took another in mid-July
with Lady Agnes and a large entourage of officials.

Building the railway through the mountains was extremely
challenging. The CPR encountered problems at Kicking Horse Pass to overcome the "Great
Divide" - the highest point on the railway line. A steep rail
grade of 4% was built that descended from Wapta Lake to the base of
Mount Stephen.

The railway follows the Kicking Horse River valley, and Lady
Agnes, from her front row perch on the cowcatcher, writes:

I could only gaze at the glaciers that the mountains held so
closely, 5,000 feet above us, at the trace of snow avalanches which
had left a space a hundred feet wide massed with torn and prostrate
trees; on the shadows that played over the distant peaks; and on a
hundred rainbows made by the foaming, dashing river, which swirls
with tremendous rapidity down the gorge on its way to the Columbia
in the valley below. There is glory of brightness and beauty
everywhere, and I laugh aloud on the cowcatcher, just because it is
all so delightful!

The wide Columbia River Valley serves as a peaceful lull to the
extreme mountain thrills. Lady Agnes describes it as "very
charming" and a "quiet little paradise". The town of Golden
is located here. The first steamship - The Duchess -
was launched hear on May 8, 1886, and this began a more than thirty
year service during the summer months when steamships would make
weekly trips south 160 kilometers up the Columbia to the
East Kootenay mining district. In 1911, Golden became the
headquarters for the world-renowned Swiss Guides, with a Swiss
Village situated one mile west of town.

Building the railway through the Selkirks was another challenge
for the CPR. Railway engineer, A.B. Rogers, discovered a pass
through the mountains - now called Rogers Pass - in 1881. Four years of
gruelling work ensued, and workers surmounted these obstacles: a
pass rising 1524 meters (5000 feet) above sea-level, winter
snowfalls and avalanches of massive proportions, and numerous
creeks and rivers. Some of the bridges were considered
the highest in the world at the time. Lady Agnes describes
the outcome of the work as follows:

Perhaps no part of the line is more extraordinary, as
evincing the daring engineering skill, than this Pass, where the
road bed curves in loops over trestle bridges of immense height, at
the same time rapidly descending. In six miles of actual
travelling the train only advances two and a half miles, so
numerous are the windings necessary to get through this
canyon.

The CPR would later construct a hotel at the height of the pass
called Glacier House Station, for tourists to stop and have a meal
or to stay the night, and to allow the steam engines time to stop
after the strain of climbing the steep grade. Later, the Connaught
Tunnel was built to allow trains to bypass the worst of the
avalanches and steep inclines by travelling one and a half
kilometres underground. A new railway station was also built to replace
Glacier House station.

Alpine Cabins Arthur O. Wheeler Hut and Glacier Circle Alpine Hut were built near
Rogers Pass, and this attracted Swiss mountaineering guides and
scientists to come here. Since 1887, the pioneering Vaux
family began studying flora and fauna of the region. With
near continuous monitoring of avalanches since Rogers Pass was
discovered, this is the birthplace for avalanche and snow studies.

Since the early 1960s, after the Trans-Canada-Highway opened
following the original railway, Rogers Pass has been the heartland
of avalanche control in Canada, and there has been an ongoing
partnership between the Canadian Forces and Parks Canada to keep
the highway clear from the threat of avalanches.

Although it is a little over 100
kilometres from Golden to Revelstoke, it is a landscape filled with
superlatives at every turn, and it may feel like a relief for
travellers to arrive in Revelstoke! Though Lady Agnes never wrote
about Revelstoke's fine attractions, this is still an interesting
and historic place. Explorer and geographer David Thompson
passed through the region in 1811 on his way to the Pacific.
Later, paddle-wheel steamboats plied the river during the 1860s
gold rush; and from 1885 to 1899, development occurred in two
separate towns due to a land dispute between surveyor A.S. Farwell
and the CPR. So one town - located near the Columbia River -
was named Farwell; the other town - located near the CPR station -
was named Revelstoke Station. Once the land dispute was
cleared up, Revelstoke was incorporated as a one city on March 1,
1899, and until 1913 a period of growth ensued. In 1914,
local citizens lobbied to have the nearby mountains protected as
Mount Revelstoke National Park.

Today, Parks Canada's headquarters for two mountain parks
(Glacier and Mount Revelstoke) are located in Revelstoke. The
city has many designated heritage properties, and most are within
the Revelstoke Station Heritage Conservation
Area. Heritage properties worth visiting include the McCarty House (associated with the town's first mayor);
Birch Lodge (connected to prominent local
businessman Robert Howson, who arrived here 1889); and the Court House (a landmark for its Neoclassical
design), and there are more listed on the local community heritage register. To learn more about the
region's history, check out the Revelstoke Museum and Archives and
Revelstoke Railway Museum, or find out about 100 years of scenic
driving in nearby Mount Revelstoke National Park during the
park's Celebrate the Summit days.

West of here, the CPR laid down track along the Eagle River,
towards Kamloops. Known as the Eagle Pass, the railway runs
through the town Craigellachie. Lady Agnes saw the beauty of this
place, yet never mentioned its fame as the location for driving the
last spike to complete the trans-continental railway line.
Captured in time in an iconic photograph, Donald Smith
hammered the spike in November 1885. Today, this event of national historic significance is
commemorated with a cairn.

The journey of Lady Agnes and Sir John A. MacDonald was a
catalyst for future protection of the landscape. Not long
after they arrived back in Ottawa, the Prime Minister created on
October 10, 1886 Yoho and Glacier National Parks, and so Canada's
second and third national parks were born. Today, key
mountain wilderness is now protected. With the destination of
several national historic sites and other provincial historic
places, the key cultural heritage - and particularly the
scientific, engineering, and architectural heritage - features of
the region are now protected. This "three pass" cultural
corridor stretches 300 kilometres, and visitors can still travel
its length through many layers of mountain history. It is a
landscape that stirs our national consciousness, and can make you
as excited as it did for Lady Agnes 125 years ago.